Fpl Puts Power Back On The Line

Heat, Plant Shutdowns Caused Demand To Soar

August 22, 1995|By VICKI McCASH Business Writer and Staff Writer Stephanie Zimmermann contributed to this report.

With the return of all but one of its generating plants and a break to the sweltering heat of last week, there is plenty of electrical power available to meet demand, Florida Power & Light Co. officials said on Monday.

The Port Everglades power plant that caught fire on Aug. 6 was restarted on Monday and began generating power by midafternoon, FPL spokesman Bill Swank said.

The company's St. Lucie nuclear Unit No. 1, which has been down since it was shut down for Hurricane Erin on Aug. 1, is out of service indefinitely, spokesman Ray Golden said. The plant was not restarted because of three separate problems, including a spill of a small amount of radioactive water in the containment building. That water is still being cleaned up and engineers have not set a restart date, Golden said. Because the plant was not generating when the accident occurred, he said, the public was not endangered. The slightly radioactive water remains inside the containment building and workers who are cleaning it up are being monitored for exposure to radioactivity.

Last week, extreme heat throughout most of the eastern United States combined with unexpected shutdowns at three FPL power plants to push the demand above generating capacity for Florida.

FPL hit a crisis because it had unexpectedly lost the power from St. Lucie and Port Everglades, and had problems in its Fort Myers, Manatee and Martin County plants. The Manatee plant is running at one-fourth capacity.

On Monday and Thursday last week, the company called upon its 398,000 on-call customers, who agreed to have major appliances such as air conditioners cut off at 15 minute intervals during times of peak demand. In exchange, the customers get a reduced electric bill. Some consumers said the money saved is worth the hassle of a short-term power loss.

Clover Cheverette saves about $9.50 a month on her electric bills by agreeing to let FPL shut off her air conditioning during crisis periods. Last week was the first time Cheverette, who lives in West Palm Beach, was aware of a shut-off to her air conditioning. And even that wasn't so bad, she said.

"It's not an inconvenience to me at all," she said. "I don't even know how long it was before it came on."

FPL also gained 800 megawatts of power last week from 380 major business customers who have reserve generators to use when FPL needs to cut power use. Those customers also get a break on their electric bills.

In normal weather, even during hot summer months, there is enough power available from other power companies to make up any losses from power plants not generating. FPL can simply purchase the additional power it needs. But last week, record high temperatures stressed power systems as far north as Chicago, leaving little excess power available for sale at any price.

"This was really a major heat wave," FPL's Swank said. "It was just a coincidence that we had this very hot weather at a time when we had three units off line for unrelated problems."